Muhammad Yunus

Human rights lose moral force when attention appears conditional. Advocacy loses credibility when outrage is immediate in some theatres but restrained or absent in others. For the victims and their families, this disparity is not academic, but it shapes whether justice is pursued with seriousness or allowed to dissolve into procedural formality and forgotten headlines.

For a change, The New York Times pointed out that while Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to the Interim Government of Bangladesh, condemned violence as a security challenge, not targeted attacks on “any section of the population” (no specific mention of Hindus), the religiously-motivated killing of Dipu Chandra Das was celebrated by “many”.

Bangladesh authorities stated, "We have not received any reliable information indicating that he has crossed the border."

The BNP’s role is more ambiguous. While the party has communicated to India its desire to maintain cordial bilateral relations, its historical dependence on Jamaat and its reluctance to clearly distance itself from Islamist street power raises serious doubts.

The unsettling similarity between Dipu and Priyantha is not limited to just how they were lynched and by whom, the allegations against them were similar too. Flimsy accusations of ‘blasphemy’, baseless rumours of ‘insult to Islam’ and ‘Insult to the Islamic prophet’.